


I Was Blind But Now I See

by bealovelylady



Series: UshiHina Mini Fics [6]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blind Character, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-01 18:46:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15779922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bealovelylady/pseuds/bealovelylady
Summary: It was amazing how bright his eyes were even as they stared unseeing over the volleyball court. His head followed the ball like he could see it go to and fro, his orange hair bobbing with his excitement.Someone sat next to him, a miniature copy of the boy, her hand holding his tightly, her lips moving as she explained the whole game to the excited boy beside her.“Teach me how to play volleyball!”Blind AU





	I Was Blind But Now I See

It was amazing how bright his eyes were even as they stared unseeing over the volleyball court. His head followed the ball like he could see it go to and fro, his orange hair bobbing with his excitement. 

Someone sat next to him, a miniature copy of the boy, her hand holding his tightly, her lips moving as she explained the whole game to the excited boy beside her. 

Ushijima had spotted them early on in the first quarter and now he found his eyes drifting to them instead of the ball. Something was flying fast towards him as he watched the redhead grin like a fool, and Ushijima barely had time to react, to jump up and smack the ball away. 

x

He was smaller than Ushijima would have imagined, much tinier and almost frail. But he was bouncing from foot to foot, the girl with him holding tight to his hand as she called to Ushijima, stopping him in his tracks. The rest of his teammates filed past him on their way to the locker room, smacking high fives for a good game played and won. 

“Uhm, Ushijima-san!” Her voice was high and shaky. Ushijima turned towards the pair. The girl was caught off guard under his fierce gaze, shocked he’d even turned around. “Ah, I’m Hinata Natsu, and this is my brother, Shouyo! We’re huge fans!”

Suddenly the boy, Shouyo, rushed forward, arms flailing wildly towards Ushijima. “That game was fantastic! I love the sound the ball makes when you hit it, Ushijima-san!”

These were words he’d never heard before, and he cocked his head, baffled. The sister was trying to grab hold of her brother and hold him off, shouting in flustered broken sentences. “Shouyo, you can’t-! He’s not-!”

Ushijima clenched his hands together, trying to recall how his teammates dealt with fans. “Ah... an autograph?” he choked out awkwardly. 

Shouyo won the struggle against his sister and grabbed blindly at Ushijima’s jersey. His head lifted, his line of sight slightly off from where Ushijima’s eyes actually were, his milky eyes bright and wide. 

“Teach me how to play volleyball!”

x

Ushijima rucked his hand through his hair. He never thought he’d be here, in his college gym, teaching a blind kid how to toss a volleyball. Natsu sat on the bleachers, looking fidgety and nervous as all get out, Shouyo’s walking stick in her hands. A small hand was gripped into Ushijima’s practice shirt, and blind eyes stared off into the distance as Ushijima talked the boy’s ear off about volleyball technique. He really didn’t know what he was saying half of the time, and sometimes he’d resort to smacking the ball against the wall and catching it again, but Shouyo’s face was bright and he listened to every word and sound. 

How do you teach a blind person to play a physical sport, one where you had to watch the ball all the time? 

He turned towards the small redhead and fell silent. That tiny hand still gripped his shirt tightly, and he stared down at it. It was nerve wracking to stare at someone who thought and expected the world of him, even if the other couldn’t see his stare. 

“Hold out your hands,” he said finally. Shouyo was obedient, and he did so instantly, a little unsteady on his feet for a moment. Carefully, Ushijima placed the ball he was holding onto those small, waiting hands.

It was like a light shining into the darkness; Shouyo’s whole face lit up with a spark and Ushijima’s heart stuttered in his chest. Tiny fingers pressed over the ridges of the ball, memorizing everything. Ushijima just watched him, at a complete loss. 

He glanced over at the sister, who still looked a nervous wreck, but now she was smiling happily, watching her brother. Was this enough? Staring down at the small redhead, Ushijima felt something stirring in him that he’d never before felt. 

He wanted to teach this boy how to play. He wanted to see the face he’d make the first time he hit a ball back over the net. He wanted to catch his serves. 

x

Months passed by slowly. It only took a few weeks before Shouyo was showing up by himself, waiting outside the college gym for Ushijima. He’d clutch his walking stick and call out to Ushijima; he knew exactly when the tall man was exiting the gym, and turned his face up towards the other. 

At first, Ushijima would just huff and let the boy follow him back into the gym, but lately he’d picked up the habit of taking Shouyo’s small hand in his own and leading him inside. Shouyo would cling to him, his stick dangling under his armpit, completely trusting Ushijima to guide him. 

And he could hit a ball now. He’d raise his hands in the air and Ushijima would toss the ball there. Shouyo would close his eyes and listen to the ball, to the wind it made as it flew towards his hands, and he’d smack it down. It had taken him a week to perfect this. 

Next Ushijima had shown him how to serve. Shouyo had zero talent for it, and Ushijima was a terrible teacher in this area too, so mostly the tall man just ran around the gym, retrieving and dodging stray balls. But Shouyo would throw his head back and laugh, the sound ringing off the gym walls, and Ushijima would freeze in his tracks and stare at the small boy. 

“I want to jump! Toss me a high ball, Ushijima-san!” the redhead had told him confidently one day, and Ushijima wondered where this boy got his drive from. Blind from birth, he’d never seen a volleyball game, never seen a ball, never seen a serve or a block. So why? Why was he so enamored by the game? Ushijima had asked him one day and Shouyo had shrugged, his grin wide and up to the sky when he’d responded with, “I just love the way it sounds!”

The squeaking of shoes on laminate, the smack of a ball against a hand or closed fist, the ball whizzing through the air until it made violent contact with the ground. Ushijima knew the sounds, heard them in his sleep, but Shouyo made him appreciate them all. Ushijima’s love for volleyball grew as another feeling welled up in his heart along side it. 

The first hundred times Ushijima tossed Shouyo a high ball, the boy missed and fell ungraciously in a heap on the floor. Ushijima had rushed to his side the first few times, concerned, scared his parents would come after him now, but Shouyo just tossed his head back and beamed in the tall man’s general direction. 

Another heart stopping moment. 

Slowly, Shouyo had learned how to land, but he was still missing the ball when he smacked his hands forward, his jumps too erratic. One day, it was about the hundredth time, and Ushijima watched the ball roll away with a weary sigh. Shouyo heard him, of course, and his smile faltered for a moment, a pain in Ushijima’s heart blooming. Quickly, he’d marched himself to the small boy and grabbed under his armpits. 

“Do as I say,” he’d said. “Bend your knees, tense your calves, gather your strength. And jump.”

Shouyo’s small body lifted off the ground and Ushijima guided him up above his own head. Shouyo’s milky eyes were wide as if he was taking in a whole new view, and Ushijima’s heart slammed to a halt. Light shone around Shouyo’s mess of hair like a halo. 

The next time his heart stopped like that was when Shouyo jumped taller than Ushijima all by himself, and another when he slammed the ball hard back to the ground. His feet spread wide and the blow knocked him backwards. Ushijima ran forward in a panicked daze and scooped the small boy into his arms. 

“Are you okay?” he’d shouted, never so frazzled before, but Shouyo had just beamed widely up at him and Ushijima knew he was done for. 

Tiny hands pressed up against his face, searching until they found his cheeks, resting there. Milky eyes gazed at him, line of sight just a little off as his eyes roamed. 

“I don’t hate being blind. I’m not handicapped because of it,” Shouyo spoke in a small voice. His smile was strong, but it faltered when he spoke the next sentence. “But when I think that I’ll never know what your face looks like when you do a successful block, I want to cry and feel sorry for myself.”

Ushijima’s heart slammed violently against his rib cage. He didn’t know what to do or say. He’d trade his own eyes for Hinata’s if that would make the other happy, and he said as much before he could think. 

But Shouyo shook his head, soft, un-calloused fingers roaming over flushed cheeks. “Don’t wish for that, Ushijima. Because all my happiness would be stolen if you could no longer play the game you love so much.”

Tears came; Ushijima had cried only twice before in his life. And his third time was because feelings so powerful, feelings he didn’t understand at all, slammed into his chest like a bullet train. 

“Why are you crying?” Shouyo had asked, but his voice was far away. Ushijima closed his eyes and tried to will his heart to calm down, but he could smell Shouyo, feel his eyes on him. When he opened his eyes, Shouyo’s milky irises were locked right on his, and he shuddered. His hands tightened around Shouyo’s slender frame and he pulled the boy in close, his lips drawn almost magnetically to small, round lips. 

Shouyo tasted like strawberries and sunshine. A shocked sound slipped past his lips, but then his hands tightened on Ushijima’s face and he kissed the other back. It was sloppy and unskillful, but Ushijima wouldn’t trade this feeling for anything else. 

When he pulled back, he pressed his forehead to Shouyo’s, to the boy with fierce determination, unparalleled to his own, with shining eyes and a bright smile, the boy he’d fallen in love with recklessly and irreversibly. 

“I’ll make you the greatest volleyball player in all of Japan, Shouyo!” the tall man promised with tears in his eyes, and Shouyo nodded eagerly, his face splitting in a breathtaking smile. 

“Yes!”

**Author's Note:**

> /pulls out binoculars and smacks fic in roof top  
> No smut to be seen for miles  
> Pretty sure it’s a miracle lmao
> 
> HMU on tumblr to talk about these two precious babs or give me more fic ideas ;)  
> @ bealovelylady


End file.
